Slated for a 2027 launch, NASA’s NEO Surveyor mission is advancing through critical testing phases to enhance our planetary defense.
The mission will utilize an advanced infrared telescope, housed within a specially designed enclosure, to detect and study asteroids and comets that could endanger Earth.
NEO Surveyor Testing
NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is currently undergoing critical testing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. A key component of the spacecraft, known as the instrument enclosure, is a 12-foot (3.7-meter) long structure designed to shield the infrared telescope and dissipate heat during space operations.
The enclosure was built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California and shipped to Houston in November. The NEO Surveyor mission is scheduled for launch in late 2027.
Mission Objectives and Testing Protocols
As NASA’s first space-based mission dedicated to planetary defense, NEO Surveyor will search for, measure, and analyze hard-to-detect asteroids and comets that could threaten Earth. These objects, which are often difficult to see with visible light, emit strong infrared signals as they absorb heat from the Sun.
But first, the mission needs to perform a series of tests on all the equipment to make sure it survives launch and performs as intended in the vacuum of space. To that end, a crew at NASA Johnson, led by NEO Surveyor contractor BAE Systems, has been exposing the enclosure to the frigid, airless conditions it will experience in deep space using the facility’s historic Chamber A. Part of Johnson’s Space Environment Simulation Laboratory, the cavernous thermal-vacuum facility tested the Apollo spacecraft that traveled to the Moon and, more recently, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s optical element and science instruments in 2017.
Future Integration and Unexpected Challenges
After testing, the enclosure will travel to the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) in Logan, Utah. There, it will be joined together with the telescope’s blocky aluminum body, called the optical bench, which JPL built and is currently testing.
JPL was within the mandatory evacuation zone for the Eaton Fire. Employees were instructed to work from home beginning January 8, and most will continue to do so until Monday, January 27. Updates on the laboratory’s status are being posted at emergency.jpl.nasa.gov. JPL facilities, labs, and hardware, including components for NEO Surveyor, were secured and protected by critical staff that remained on the property during the fire.
The Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is NASA’s first space-based effort dedicated to planetary defense, designed to detect and track asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to Earth. Led by Survey Director Dr. Amy Mainzer at UCLA for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, the mission is being developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under the management of the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The spacecraft and its instrumentation are being built by leading aerospace and engineering firms, including BAE Systems, the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL), and Teledyne. The University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics will support mission operations, while IPAC-Caltech in Pasadena, California, will process and analyze the survey data. Caltech manages JPL on behalf of NASA. NEO Surveyor is scheduled for launch in late 2027 and will use infrared technology to locate hard-to-detect near-Earth objects that emit heat from the Sun.
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.